Perhaps the stereotype of what it is to be manly in the region needs to change among young girls. Instead of admiring macho, unfaithful men who have many children, the real role model should be a man who is serious, has an education, a job and supports his family.

My first week here I visited UWI and there were students presenting their theses on subjects I was familiar with through my job and I was astounded by the wonderful quality. What I find deplorable is the high rate of brain drain in the whole region of highly educated graduates, doctors, engineers, nurses who go abroad because they can’t get jobs here.

Ira Mathur is an Indian born Caribbean freelance journalist/writer working in radio, television and print in Trinidad, West Indies. She has been a regular columnist since 1995 and currently writes for the Trinidad Guardian.

The body of writing reflected in her website is in many ways the diary of a woman of the Indian Diaspora who has made the Caribbean her home. Ira spent her childhood in India and Tobago, her University years in Canada, lived in England and settled in Trinidad.

Like most children of the Diaspora, she inhabits many worlds, not quite belonging to any one, but improvising, choosing and claiming chunks of most.

So if you decide to live abroad will you forget that you were born in Trinidad @ Pooke and Angela Ifill. And will you forget the influence and culture of the country of your birth altogether? Trinis also hate it when people like Naipaul appear to reject their country of birth.